Discussion

Why are there so few decent restaurants in the east of Yonge?

Hi there - I am new in these parts. I live in Scarborough (yes there are decent parts of Scarberia - mainly south of Kingston Rd) after having moved farther east from first Riverdale and then the Beach.

One thing I continually find frustrating is the lack of decent dining in the east end. For example - 0 of the top 10 restaurants according to Toronto Life are east of Yonge (two are on Yonge). Of the Toronto Life best new restaurants only one is east of Yonge. The west end even has a top notch suburban restaurant in Via Allegro and also Sushi Kaji. What do we have in the East end? There are a couple of half decent places in the Beach, but nothing that good. There is Vi Vetha and its sister Vi Pei in the Beach/ Scarb and they're okay but not great.

Even the top notch out of town restaurants, such as Eigensinn and Langdon Hall are west of the city rather than east.

i can't comment of scarborough but queen east is becoming the new queen west and quite enjoyable...i don't think the low rents and new buyouts have reached as far as you yet...be patient and know that via allegro isn't all that people in the past have said it is

I don't know that it's true. There are probably more restaurants in the west end -- this is pure speculation -- but still, tonnes of options out east. I hardly ever venture eastward, but I can think of a bunch off the top of my head.

Little India and (Gerrard) Chinatown are east. Leslieville has some good restaurants, including several great brunch spots and bars. The Danforth has a cluster of Ethiopian restaurants. One of my fave restaurants, Kaiseki Sakura, is just east of Yonge, at Church and Wellesley E.

This much is partially true, VVM. Kates does indeed go east of Yonge and north of Bloor on occasion. However, I believe the preponderance of reviews written by other critics of west end establishments is directly proportional to the number of critics that live near Kensington Market. Or at least west of Spadina. They're even covering sandwich shops now as long as it has the right address.

Yeah good point. I think the original poster was concentrating on Scarborough and the Beach. However, if we are generalizing to "east of Yonge," there are plenty of spots on Mt. Pleasant and Bayview, etc that are just fine.

The original question isn't specific enough. It even mentions Eigensinn Farm and Langdon Hall. Heck, Montreal is east of Yonge.